Western Caribbean Cruise Photos

Kristen and I are back from our very relaxing cruise. I’ve posted about 60+ photos up on Flickr.The most enjoyable things were the warm weather, our Belize tour guide, and our self-made Cozumel day trip. The least enjoyable things were the bus rides through extreme poverty, the ‘in-your-face” sales people, and the contrived Costa Mayan port-o-call.The Sea Turtle Farm in Grand Cayman was also a lot of fun. Actually, just seeing how geeked Kristen was made it all worth while. She really, really likes turtles….almost as much as I like tequila.Speaking of tequila, we purchased about 2.5 liters of the stuff during the trip and at damn awesome prices. We picked up some Don Julio – Reposado and 1800 Jose Quervo – Reposado. The Don Julio is some tastey stuff, man. Some people on the ship were saying that Patron is Don Julio re-labled…hmm…I thought they were two completely different brands..weird. I’ll have to find out….googletime.

Leaving Grand Cayman

Kristen and I are on a Western Carribbean crusie and so far it is pretty relaxing and HOT…which is just what we wanted. After a day at sea, our first port of call was Grand Cayman Island. Oh my load is the water blue! Seriously. It was unbelievably blue. The high tempurature was 84 degrees with a slight breeze and sunny as ever. Coming from a high of 23 degrees in Grand Rapids…it was down right steamy…but it felt so good. Actually, our tour guide even said that this weather was unusally warm..damn El Nino.At Grand Cayman we signed up for the Bike Tour but only 3 other people signed up for it…and the bikes “were in repair”…so they canceled it . So…we made the best of it by doing some shopping, then hopping on a different excursion that was basically a 2 hr bus tour along the “Seven Mile Beach” — frickin awesome by the way — with a final destination of one of Grand Cayman’s Green Sea Turtle Farms. Kristen ‘really’ got kick out of that. The 30+ year old turtles were HUGE! I would say at least 4′ wide and 5′ long. There was a several tanks of little baby turtles that you could touch with out losing a finger. I’d post some of the photos but the ship’s computers don’t allow access to any of there usb ports…We are the only people at our dinner table….which is pretty sweet as we get to know our wait staff a lot better and ask for suggestions on what to see and where to stay away from at the different ports of call…seeing as most of them have been doing this cruise for nearly 8 months.We’ll…gota split and hit the breakfast buffet..and get ready for Costa Maya….

Weekend In Washington

Man, we had a blast hanging out and clubbin’ in D.C. area this weekend. We took Saif and Sara down to with us to meet up with the Doug and Tysen (a.k.a. The Magic Man and El Diablo). Check out the photo set.Kristen was able to get us a room at the Beacon Hotel which is within walking distance of a ton of clubs in the Dupont District. We also took advantage of their penthouse martini bar while we waited for Tysen and Doug to meet us.That weekend was “Restaurant Week” in Washington D.C. Apparently a bunch of restaurants create specific menus that offer a variety of the chefs best dishes…but at a cheaper prices than usual. We definitely took advantage of all those good eats. On Friday night, Tysen was able to reserve a table this swank mezze restaurant named ‘Zaytinya’. Wow, this was excellent. It was a completely different atmosphere than the mezze restarant next to San Chez in G.R. The drinks, food and service were outstanding.Then we headed up to Dupont Circle for club action. First we went to the 18th Street Lounge, where Doug was chatting it with some married chick. However, her was a massage therapist…word. We mostly lounged on the roof patio. The night air was a very comfortable ~73 degrees.Next we headed across the street to MCCXXIII (1223). Yeah, apparently all the bars in DC are named after numbers. This place was okay I guess. Not really my scene and place was kinda dead for being after midnight. So we decided to go next door to ‘ANZU’. I have no idea if that is an acronym for something or what. All I know is that this place was a blast. There were a bunch of people dancin’ and the DJ was great. We stayed at this place and got blitzed. No seriously, I’m talkin’ hammered. Don’t worry mom, our hotel was only 5 block away. So, after two guys got into some sissy fight…we all decided to call it a night.The next morning, well, afternoon, Tysen arrived to take Kristen and I over to Georgetown. Yeah, he’s drivin’ a frickin’ 2006 BMW M3 Convertible. I’m still droolin’ as I write this. What a puke. Meanwhile, Saif and Sara decided to take the Metro down to the Smithsonian and check out the museums. Sara has been to DC once but Saifs was a DC virgin. Later, our rendezvous was a new fusion restaurant name ‘Lima’. It was a fusion of South American entires with a modern twist I guess. All I know is that there seafood and fish were outstanding and the service was….terrible. It was kind of a buzz kill, really.Finally, after waiting for an eternity to get the bill, we made our way down into their dance club. After a couple of Red Bulls, we were back on top. This club was all techno and beautiful people. Wanting to see more clubs we headed back to Dupont Circle area. The only place that looked tempting was this place called FIVE but it had a line that was enormous. So we decided to go back to MCCXXIII which turn out to be an excellent choice. Somehow Tysen got us all into the VIP club on the third floor and damn was that place sweet. The techno was really up beat and everyone was pretty cool.We finished the weekend by having another leisure day of museums and driving out to Annapolis’ waterfront to enjoy some famous Maryland crab and oysters on the half shell.